Mambo Chita Tann (Mambo T) and Sosyete Fòs Fè Yo Wè

Mambo Chita Tann (Mambo Tamara, or “Mambo T”) has been mambo asogwe (the highest rank of Vodou priesthood) in Haitian Vodou since July 2001, when she initiated with a Vodou sosyete in the city of Jacmel on Haiti’s southern coast. In 2004, Mambo T was granted membership in another Vodou sosyete based in Pétionville and Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with a satellite house in Long Island, NY (which relocated to New Orleans, LA in 2006): Societé La Fraîcheur Belle Fleur Guinea of Mambo Marie Carmel Charles. Mambo T underwent her second initiation as mambo asogwe in January 2006 at Sosyete Sipote Ki Di, a historical Port-au-Prince peristyle jointly administered by Mambo Marie Carmel Charles and Mambo Fifi Ya Sezi. At her baptism, Mambo T was honored with the public name Chita Tann, a name passed down through several mambos in the house’s lineage.

Mambo T has more than 20 years of experience as a teacher, published author, and lecturer on African religions, and is a professional Egyptologist and the spiritual leader of the Kemetic Orthodox Religion (a modern form of ancient Egyptian religion) in addition to her work in Haitian Vodou. She considers Vodou not to be her religion, but a spiritual and magical service in honor of her Haitian and Native American ancestors. Mambo T’s first book on Haiti and Vodou, entitled Haitian Vodou: An Introduction to Haiti’s Indigenous Spiritual Tradition, was published in January 2012. She takes students and initiates children into Haitian Vodou from all backgrounds, ethnicities, and walks of life, with the full support of her Haitian family and lineage.

 

La Sosyete Fòs Fè Yo Wè (“Strength Makes Them See,” formerly La Sosyete Kouwone Andezo) was founded in 2001 to accommodate Mambo T’s altars and a growing number of students and initiates. The sosyete’s home temple (or houmfor) is currently located at Mambo T’s home in Portland, OR. Membership in the sosyete is by invitation only.

 

Mambo Marie Carmel Charles is a well-known mambo, both inside and outside of Haiti. She maintains residences in New Orleans and Haiti, and has more than 25 years’ experience in Vodou. At age 18, Mambo Marie took the asson of the asogwe priesthood from Mambo Jacqueline Anne-Marie Lubin, herself an initiate of the famous Kitonmin Bon Mambo of BelAir (Mambo Felicia Louis-Romain), the chief priestess of Haiti’s first asson lineage in Port-au-Prince dating from the 1920s.

Mambo Marie’s house, Societé La Fraîcheur Belle Fleur Guinea, honors both the asson and non-asson lineages of Haiti. Mambo Marie was first involved in Vodou at age seven and received training from her father’s asson lineage and her mother’s non-asson Kenscoff tradition (primarily Kongo/Ibo and Taino Indian in orientation). Mambo Marie has also traveled to West Africa to be initiated into various secret societies of Abomey. In Haiti, Mambo Marie shares a peristyle with Mambo Fifi “Ya Sezi,” chief mambo of Sosyete Sipote Ki Di, a very famous Vodou temple located near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince with a 50+ year heritage. Mambo Ya Sezi’s large, urban peristyle, painted a vibrant deep blue and featuring huge murals of the Lwa, has been featured in a number of documentaries and books about Vodou. Since the 2011 earthquake, the main peristyle in Haiti for the family, featuring a large lakou, a beautiful garden and grotto dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and a hand-built stone chapel-style enclosure over the peristyle floor, is now located in La Pleine.

Mambo Marie is a highly respected Haitian mambo, whose reputation has carried her to clients all over the world, and whose numerous initiatory children hail from Haiti and also many other countries. The Vodou ceremonies she hosts attract hundreds, who pack her peristyle to hear her singing and the excellent rhythms of Troupe Makandal, the renowned drum troupe founded by the late master drummer and Houngan Frisner Augustin. Mambo Marie is a full-time mambo and the owner of Carmel and Sons Botanica, located on the Rue Dumaine in the storied Treme neighborhood of New Orleans.